Maintaining Your Refrigerator: Common Things to Watch Out for

Refrigerators are an important part of our daily lives. They keep the food cold and preserve it for a long period of time. Maintaining your refrigerator nowadays is not an easy task. However, there are always some tips that can help you maintain your refrigerator to make sure it’s running smoothly.

1.     Setting the Right Temperature

A refrigerator’s temperature should always be set between 37 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This is essential for food safety and to keep the fridge running efficiently. The freezer, on the other hand, should be set at 0 degrees. So, make sure it’s always set within the proper range to help maintain your refrigerator.

2.     Always Close the Door

Maintaining your refrigerator doesn’t require a lot of effort, but you need to keep the door closed. Keeping the door closed helps maintain the correct temperature to help preserve the food in the fridge. Hence, you should always make sure to retrieve all your items at once when needed and close the door properly when you’re done.

3.     Fill It Up

It doesn’t matter if you’re cooking or it’s just take out, make sure your fridge is always full. That’s because refrigerators need thermal mass to help maintain cooler temperatures. Cool foods and drinks help absorb the warm air when opening the fridge, ensuring it’s operating more efficiently.

Keep in mind, you shouldn’t block the vents or controls when adding anything to it.

4.     Clean the Coils & Refrigerator

The most challenging part of maintaining a refrigerator is cleaning it inside and out. That means you should clean the fridge from the inside and its coils from the outside. If the refrigerator’s condenser is not placed in the back, then it’s at the bottom.  Over time the condenser gets dirty and no longer releases heat efficiently, reducing the fridge’s cooling. This does not only affect the refrigerator, but it also increases electricity usage.

To clean the coils, you have to unplug the fridge and remove the screws to clean it. While this is the most challenging job but it should only be done once or twice a year.

5.     Arrange & Cover Items in Refrigerators

There’s nothing better than having an organized fridge, but this is actually beneficial to help maintain your refrigerators. Arranging items properly inside the fridge and covering the food can help minimize the refrigerator’s moisture and prevent odors. Having everything into plastic containers will even help you add and remove items faster to maintain the temperature in the fridge.

Refrigerators are an essential part of our everyday life, so to maintain them for a more extended period, it’s important to follow the tips mentioned above. Hence, to make your life easier, make sure they’re arranged, covered, and easily accessible when stored to help maintain the temperature.